Snow Flower
by MiniJen
Summary: "I grew up in the mountains with my father. I never knew my mother. We lived in a large house where it was always cold. My father taught me how to use a bow and a sword when I was only ten. I grew up hearing tales of the strange world below the mountain, though I never once wanted to go there. My father said there were no men of valor there." Ashei's backstory as told by her.
1. Books

**From the author: I think I need to get a new hobby… **

**So I've stopped counting how many Zelda fanifics that I've written. All I know is that this will be my second Twilight Princess based story, though this may be more abstract than anything I've ever done before. I've been thinking for a while now about how I kind of want to start a miniseries where I examine the back stories of my favorite Zelda side (or in many cases main) characters from their points of view, because I love first person writing. I don't really have a name for this series of individual stories, but I've already planned out a few characters that I eventually want to write about including Tetra, Impa (from SS), Malon, Anju & Kafei, Romani or Cremia (though most likely Cremia), Darmani, Mikau, Medli, Maggie or Mila, Queen Rutela or Prince Ralis, Linebeck, Jolene, and many others!**

**So anyway… like I was talking about, Twilight Princess. I just finished the game again recently, and I was thinking back to all of my favorite characters from the game and among them, I kept thinking about Ashei. To me, she is such a fascinating character, though we barely get to know anything about her in the game. Her back story is so vague and underexplored that I'm surprised that no one has tried to write a story about her past. So the first story in this series of mine is going to be about Ashei and her past, as told through her point of view. So, I'm sorry for this long winded explanation and with that, I think I'll get started. Enjoy!**

_**Snow Flower**_

I stood outside amidst the blistering winds, up to my knees in snow, straining my eyes to see through the flying flurries that spun against a backdrop of a pitch black sky.

Papa would have scolded me if he had known that I was outside by myself. Whenever he would climb down the mountain for food and supplies, he would tell me to stay inside the house until he would return. When I was younger and more afraid of snow beasts roaming around the mountain, I would listen to him as though my life depended on it. But as I got older, I became more brazen, eventually venturing out into the night time blizzards and stand in front of our house despite being only about six or seven, waiting for the first hint of his lantern shining in the distance.

Besides, waiting alone inside of our large and lofty home would have terrified me more than any wolfos or ice keese could. The place always felt empty and lifeless without Papa there and I hated it. Papa once called our house a "mansion" and he told me that he didn't build it when he first came to the mountains, but that he found it, abandoned and desolate, and decided to make it home to him and I. He then muttered something under his breath that it was the only place that didn't remind him of my mother at all.

I never knew my mother. She was dead before I was a week old. Papa never spoke of her much but when he did, it would be for only a moment. From what I was able to glean, after her death, Papa took me and moved away from the place where he had once lived, a place that, when I was a small child, he only ever referred to as the "city". From there, he traveled into the vast mountain province and stumbled across our large home. And it's been all both of us have ever known since. For years, I had no idea of what the concept of a mother was at all. Papa stepped into fill both roles nicely.

I don't know how my mother died. I tried asking Papa once, but he looked away from me, his voice harsh yet pained and said, "Ashei, your Mama left this world years ago, and that's all you need to worry yourself with, yeah?" I tried protesting to his poor response, but once my father was done talking about something, his word was final. I never asked him about her again.

I bit my lip as I buried my feet depper into the snow and dug my freezing ungloved hands into my coat pockets. It was late; I knew it though I still didn't know how to tell time. But I had sense enough to know that Papa would be back before the first rays of daylight. And with him would come a wagon full of supplies from the strange, unknown world that rested below the mountain. Though his long and hazardous trips down the mountain only happened once every several months, keeping him away for at the most a week each time, he would always return home with something new. Unique delicacies that offered much more variety then the wolfos meat that usually made up our diet. Cloth or wool to spin clothing, or sometimes, already sown shirts and pants. Piles and piles of wood cut from who knows where to keep our fireplace going throughout the never ending winter. And, as he had promised me, this time, he would be returning with books so that he could teach me to read and about the world below the mountain.

We didn't have many books. My father was never much of a scholar, but rather a fighter. From whatever the city was, he brought with him swords, bows and other weapons when he had first left it. An entire room of our house was stocked with the weapons in case we ever had need of them, but most of the time we didn't. The most that Papa ever used would be one of his bows, a knife and maybe a sword that he would take with him whenever he would go out hunting for our next meal. When I was about four, he let me hold a bow for the first time. He didn't give me any arrows to shoot, but he did tell me that when I was older, around ten or eleven, he would teach me how to use it.

I gasped with excitement when I was finally able to see the yellow gleam from afar off. Knowing that I would get a good scolding if I wasn't safe and sound inside the house upon his return, I stumbled along the path that I had carved through the snow when it was still daylight as fast as I could. Once my boots met with the stone steps that lead to my house, I broke into a full run up them, and then, quietly slipped through the cracked door.

I rushed across the open courtyard and up the long flight of stairs that lead to my room, which was right next to Papa's. Quickly discarding my heavy coat for a lighter one and throwing my snow boots, scarf, and hat off, I returned down the stairs and took the inside route back to the kitchen, the only room in our entire house that it was consistently warm in. I found Papa's large mug and quickly filled it with some of the hot water that I had set to boil in the large kettle before I went outside. Standing on my tiptoes on the step ladder, I searched around in the cupboard for some of the last few coffee beans that I knew to be there. My hands speeding, I quickly fashioned a cup of coffee in the style that my father loved: black as could be and piping hot. Just as I finished preparing the drink, I head the front door creak open and I grinned. Letting the scalding mug warm my hands, I carefully carried it into the den, where my father already stood, warming his hands by the fire. The moment he saw me, a huge and loving smile stretched across his face.

"Ashei!" he greeted warmly as I handed him the mug, pulling me into a rough and genuine hug. "I missed you, yeah?"

I smiled and returned the hug. "Yeah Papa!" I chimed brightly. "How was below the mountain?" I asked, unsure if it had any other name then that.

He laughed heartily after taking a big sip of coffee. "Same as it always is…" he said, taking a seat in his large chair. "The same cowardly people, the same crowded city…"

I pulled up my stool and sat down by his feet, helping him pry his boots off. "Did you bring books?" I ask curiously.

"Yeah," he said, reaching down into the insides of his thick, snow covered fur coat. "Here." He handed me a small leather thing, a book from what I was able to guess, though I had never seen one. I held it in my small hands and looked at it wonderingly before gingerly opening the thing, curiously examining the nature of the thin, delicate paper pages inside of it and caring little about what was on them. "I bought more, but this one should do for now. It's mostly pictures, so you'll be able to learn more about the world, yeah?"

I glanced up at him for a moment, before edging a bit closer towards the glow of the fire so I would be able to see what was on them. The page I was on had a colorful picture of something that I had never seen before. I held the book up and showed it to Papa in confusion, silently asking for an explanation.

He examined it for a moment before telling me what it was. "That's a flower," he said, smiling slightly. "They're a type of plant that grows below the mountain. In fact, you're named after one. 'Ashei' is old Hylian for 'snow flower'. I named you that not long after we got here. It's a perfect name when you think about it, yeah?"

"Hylian?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at the strange word. "What's that?"

"It's the language we speak," Papa said, taking the book and leafing through it for a moment before finding a certain page. "Do you see this?" He held it up, showing me a new page. "This is a map of Hyrule, a very large country. Its where I go when I leave the mountain."

"Do we live there?" I asked, pointing to it and looking over the lines on it. "In Hyrule?"

He thought for a moment before responding. "Well… kind of," he said. "We live right there." He pointed to the northwest corner of the map. "In the Peak Province."

I stared at the map for a moment more before finding a strange shape in the center of it that looked similar to our house. "What's that?" I asked.

Papa looked down at it. "That's Hyrule Castle," he said somewhat hollowly. "It's where the royal family of Hyrule lives and many other people too."

My eyes widened in confusion and child-like curiosity. At the time, I had never left the mountain before. Aside from my father, I hadn't even seen any other people before. The idea that there was a place where many people lived all together was astonishing to me. "Can I go there Papa?" I asked quietly.

Papa stared into the fire for a long time before answering me. "You don't want to go down there, Ashei…" he said bitterly. "There are no men of valor left in the land of Hyrule. It's a cold place, but a different kind of cold then we have here. People there, they fear even their own shadows. But you and me, we're not like that. To live up here, where none of those cowards will even come close, we've got more bravery then all the knights of Hyrule for sure!" He finished with a triumphant smile and I couldn't help but reflect on my own face. At the time, I didn't understand most of what he said in the ignorance of my youth, but despite being discouraged against going down to Hyrule, my curiosity was still peeked about this place where more people then I had ever seen before lived.

**Well, what did you think? I don't plan on making this too long, but i hope to update regularly! So please review! until next time!**


	2. Mirror

**So Sorry its been so long everybody! I've been really busy with life and other stories! But, I'm back, with a newfound interest in this story! So enjoy!**

* * *

The following morning, I insisted to Papa that my lessons about the world below the mountain begin. We mostly used the small picture book for the first few lessons, but as the weeks went on, we pedaled through a few of the others that he had bought.

Despite my curiosity about Hyrule, Papa started with teaching me about the different plants and animals that weren't mountain dwellers. I learned of the trees, which bore the wood that kept our many fireplaces glowing warm. I learned of the birds that flittered high above those trees and of the fish that swam in bodies of strangely unfrozen water. But I also learned of other creatures, creatures that Papa said were different types of people in and of themselves. From the rock-like Gorons to the aquatic Zoras. In addition to these lessons, Papa also introduced me to the different environments they lived in, far beyond the scope of our frozen mountain home. The flat, yet vast fields of Hyrule, the dense, thick forests littered with trees, the tall mountains that instead of being covered with snow, were filled with molten lava, the empty, dry desert wasteland, the large, bustling, highly-populated cities. With each one I learned about, I was amazed at how such places could exist with such diversity. The only place I had ever known was my mountain home. For the first time however, I had gained the concept that there was a place beyond it. What strange and exciting new worlds awaited just at the foot of our mountain, I wondered. And, would I ever be able to see them for myself?

Aside from the books, one of the most intriguing things Papa had brought with him from Hyrule was a simple glass mirror, about my height. Before bringing this home, the only mirror we had within our house that I knew of was Papa's small shaving mirror, which he rarely used anymore. But this new mirror was specifically for me, Papa said. And so, when he brought it in the house and set it in my room, it was the first time that I had ever really seen myself fully before. I stared at the girl who stood in the mirror intensely. She had her Papa's copper-brown eyes but not his thick brown beard, which was strange to me at the time. I rubbed my smooth chin and looked at his bristled one in questioning. He explained that I would never have one, much to my dismay, because I was a girl.

"Why don't girls have beards?" I asked with a slight pout.

Papa chuckled at my innocence. "Because they have other things," he said with a grin. "Like pretty long hair, yeah?"

He nodded to the mirror and I looked at the girl who stood before me once more with a frown. Indeed, she did have long hair, black as coal, spilling over her shoulders and down to her stomach in a tangled, unruly mess. Her set of bangs threatened to cover her eyes almost but I couldn't help but smile back at her, a grin which she reflected perfectly to show a set of white teeth. I wondered if the black hair was my mother's but I didn't ask Papa about it lest I be scolded again.

In time, I came to learn many things beyond what I had known in my idyllic life so far. I had always been a quickly learner, sharp as my father called me, and so I was able to grasp most concepts, such as basic reading and learning to write my name with ease. But Papa was not frivolous as a teacher. He only taught me what he deemed necessary for me to know and what I asked him to tell me. Anything else, he said, was a waste of time.

One day, he was telling me of the castle and its town once more at my request, a topic that I could tell was troublesome for him by the begrudging manner with which he spoke about it. "Who lives in the castle?" I asked him after he told me of the different types of buildings that rested in the town.

"The castle is home to the royal family," he said with a less tight tone than he had used when speaking of the town itself. "They're the ones in charge of Hyrule, yeah?"

"A family?" I said with interest. "You mean like us, yeah? A Papa and a Ashei?"

Papa let out a large, booming laugh that echoed throughout the mansion, though I looked at him in awe, having been quite serious. "Ashei…" he said, still chuckling. "I think you mean a father and a daughter. Not every Papa is as lucky to have his very own Ashei, yeah?" I gave him a huge grin as he took out one of the books to show me who lived in the castle. "The royal family does have a papa, though," he said, turning to a page that showed a picture of an old man, much older than Papa dressed in fancy clothing. He had a well-groomed snow-white beard, not brown and scruffy like Papa's and on his balding head he wore a golden crown decked out with various gems. "This is the king of Hyrule, the one in charge of the entire land, yeah?"

I looked at the image of the king for a moment, before Papa turned it to the very next page, which showed a young girl, about my age. She had long brown hair that was tied in a very neat braid running down her back and wore a tiara bearing a few of the same gems that had been on the king's crown. She wore an elegant dress laden with various gold trimmings and I wondered how anyone would be able to move in such an outfit. Her eyes were cobalt and in the picture, she did not smile but simply stared back at me with an empty, yet examining and wizened gaze. "And this is the princess of Hyrule," Papa continued. "She's the king's daughter; his 'Ashei'. Her name is Princess Zelda."

I stared back at Princess Zelda with the same scrutiny that she was giving me. I wondered if her papa liked his coffee black or if he taught her how to read like mine was doing for me. I wondered if the two of them lived in that big castle all on their own, just like Papa and I in our mansion. And I wondered if Princess Zelda had a mama that her papa refused to talk about too.

* * *

"Papa," I said that night over a dinner of wolfos soup, among other city-bought foods. "Why don't you ever talk about Mama?" I asked, feeling bolder than I usually did about the subject.

Papa put his spoon down promptly and stared at his bowl rather than at me. "Ashei," he said quietly. "What did I tell you before about your Mama?"

I sucked in a deep breath. "Papa," I said, ignoring his question. "Is she why you came up here? Why you left Hyrule and moved to the mountains?"

"Ashei," Papa said firmly, but I pressed on nonetheless, not knowing I was treading onto fragile ground.

"Is it because of her that you don't like the city?" I asked with relentless curiosity to know more about her. "Did she-"

"Ashei!" Papa said harshly, standing up from his seat and throwing his fist down on the table to silence me. I let out a sharp gasp of surprise and shock, but he didn't seem to notice. "Do not bring your mother up in this house EVER again. Do you understand me?"

I stared at him with my jaw dropped for what seemed like ages before my bottom lip began to quiver. I never cried, not even when I was hurt. But then again, my Papa had never yelled at me before. Hot tears began to fall down my cheeks and I suddenly felt very ashamed. Ashamed for the tears, ashamed for my ignorant questions, ashamed for the fact that I had upset my father. Unable to take the suffocating tension filling the dining room, I raced out, not bothering to listen to my father calling me back. Since I knew he would find me in my room, I ran out the front doors out into the cold darkness of the evening. Luckily I was already wearing my boots and it wasn't snowing for once, because I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. Away from home, away from him, away from myself.

I could hear him calling from me, but I still didn't stop. With my tears starting to freeze to my face, I kept going, not even bothering to look back. I had cleared one small slope when I heard the first howl. And at a moment like this, that was the only sound that could make me stop in my tracks. Another howl quickly followed and then one more. Three of them in total. No less than a moment after I finally stopped running, I watched with wide eyes and a pounding heart as the trio of white wolfos crept into view, circling me and eyeing their prey. I was beyond terrified as I stared at their icy forms, beady red eyes, and pointed fangs. And for a moment, all was still as we locked gazes. And then, I screamed.

The first wolfos started to lunge at me but was quickly repelled by an arrow to its forehead. It's companions raced to grasp onto their meal, lest they meet the same fate, but it was already too late for them. They fell in succession with their leader, collapsing immediately upon two direct arrow hits.

My breathing was rapid and erratic to match my heartbeat. My eyes were locked on the forms of the now dead beasts that laid before me and when Papa's hand landed gently on my shoulder, I jumped and screamed again, still traumatized by the attack. Without saying a word, he lifted me into his arms and let me wrap my arms around his neck for dear life, sobbing as I buried my head into his shoulder.

"Sh…" he whispered softly as he carried me back towards the house. "It's ok Ashei. It'll be alright, yeah?"

I sniffled pitifully, completely forgetting my shame as I let him take me home. I refused to let go of him once we got there, and he understood entirely. And so, I slept in bed with him that night, knowing that whatever nightmares I might have, my brave, strong, yet kind Papa would chase them away for me.

* * *

**Yay! Finally this is more than just one chapter! So, like I said, sorry it took so long to write this. Writer's block is partially to blame for that but so is other distractions. But this evening when I sat down to work on another story I suddenly started working on this one and viola! I got another chapter finished! So, please leave a review! until next time! :D**


End file.
